Pope Francis’ May 8 Homily — A Response to the Dubia Cardinals?

In his first opportunity to preach after receiving the cardinals’ request for an audience, the Pope warned against resisting the Holy Spirit and fearing “novelties of the Church.”

Edward Pentin
6/26/17

Although Pope Francis has not officially responded to the dubia — nor to the four cardinals’ wish for an audience — the homily he gave in Santa Marta residence shortly after he received their request for a meeting could point to how he sees the issue.

Given in the morning of Monday, May 8 — the first opportunity the Pope had to preach freely after the cardinals’ letter requesting an audience was hand-delivered to him on Saturday, May 6 — Francis warned against resisting the Holy Spirit and instead to always be open to the “God of surprises.”

According to a report by Vatican Radio, he said the Holy Spirit works miracles and creates new things, and “obviously some feared these novelties of the Church.” A God who surprises us, he continued, can create “difficulties,” just as Peter faced when he was challenged by some of the disciples because they knew that “even pagans had welcomed the Word of God.”

Peter was reprimanded, Francis reminded those present, because according to his critics he was “a scandal” that led them to ask: “You, Peter, the rock of the Church! Where are you leading us to?”

But Peter, the Pope said, saw his vision “as a sign of God” that helped him “take a courageous decision.” The first Vicar of Christ “was able to welcome God’s surprise,” and faced with many surprises of God, “the apostles came together, discussed and came to an agreement” in order “to take a step ahead that the Lord wanted,” Francis said.

The Pope continued:

“From the times of the prophets until now, the sin to resist the Holy Spirit had always been there: this resistance to the Spirit. This is the sin with which Stephen accuses the members of the Sanhedrin: ‘You and your fathers have always resisted the Holy Spirit.’ No, it has always been done this way, and must be done so. They tell Peter not to bring this newness, to remain calm… take a tranquilizer and calm the nerves… be calm … so the voice of God is shut. In the psalm the Lord speaks to the people: “Do not harden your hearts like your fathers.”

He later chastised those who say: “It has always been done like this,” who shut off and resist the Holy Spirit “who always acts in advance and carries the Church forward,” the Pope said.

Asking himself how can one discern whether such innovations are from the Holy Spirit or a spirit of worldliness and from the devil, the Pope said one must ask for the spirit of discernment. For this, he said the apostles “came together, talked and saw the path of the Holy Spirit” — possibly an allusion to the synods on the family and how he views those meetings. But the Pope added that “those without this grace, or those who did not pray for it, remained closed and still.”

“Faith,” the Pope stressed, “never changes. It’s always the same. But it broadens and grows into a movement.”

He went on to quote the 5th-century early Church father, St. Vincent of Lerins, often regarded as the authority on authentic development of doctrine, who said, “The truths of the Church forge ahead: they are strengthened with years, develop with time, become profound with age, and because they grow stronger with time and years and broaden with time and become more prominent with the age of the Church.”

Vatican Radio said the Pope concluded by urging those present “to ask for the grace of discernment in order not to mistake the path and be trapped in immobility, rigidity and closing of the heart.”

The four dubia cardinals — Carlo Caffarra, Raymond Burke, Walter Brandmüller and Joachim Meisner — are asking the Holy Father for clarity on key contentious passages in Amoris Laetitia after bishops around the world gave widely varying interpretations of the document, especially regarding the important issue of whether to admit civilly remarried Catholics without an annulment to Holy Communion. Some scholars see serious problems with the document itself.

In February, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Müller, warned bishops to stop interpreting Amoris Laetitia in ways that contradicted unchangeable Church doctrine.

The dubia cardinals asked the Pope last September to resolve this lack of clarity of interpretation by answering five questions on the exhortation’s text to ascertain if previous papal teaching on these issues remains in force. The Pope has yet to respond to their request, or to meet with them.

“From the times of the prophets until now, the sin to resist the Holy Spirit had always been there: this resistance to the Spirit. This is the sin with which Stephen accuses the members of the Sanhedrin: ‘You and your fathers have always resisted the Holy Spirit.’ No, it has always been done this way, and must be done so. They tell Peter not to bring this newness, to remain calm… take a tranquilizer and calm the nerves… be calm … so the voice of God is shut. In the psalm the Lord speaks to the people: “Do not harden your hearts like your fathers.”

For the Holy Spirit was promised to the successors of Peter not so that they might, by his revelation, make known some new doctrine, but that, by his assistance, they might religiously guard and faithfully expound the revelation or deposit of faith transmitted by the apostles. Indeed, their apostolic teaching was embraced by all the venerable fathers and reverenced and followed by all the holy orthodox doctors, for they knew very well that this see of St. Peter always remains unblemished by any error, in accordance with the divine promise of our Lord and Saviour to the prince of his disciples: I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren.Vatican I

Francis is superpope because he elevates himself to be above all the popes since St. Peter. He claims to have direct inspiration of the Holy Ghost, as did St. Peter. Francis admits to having a unique charism to open the door to new teaching, revealing either a god who misled us, or a god who changes his mind. Hence, Francis proposes to us a false god. Francis has a demon.

Is there something greater in Francis’ revelation, something that goes beyond his petty self? Are we seeing, finally, the admission by superpope that supercouncil Vatican II was of the same substance as Francis? We know that Francis is not brilliant. He is childish and devious, but hasn’t had an original thought since his days of brain washing 40 – 60 years ago. His false characterization of St. Peter, then, didn’t just pop into his little head. It had been there, but couldn’t sprout forth until he had obtained the highest of bully pulpits, the papacy. But the motif, the concept was present long before. The concept of a superpope and supercouncil bringing forth new inspirations is the underlying premise of what has been foisted on the faithful. And Francis is now admitting it.

Good insights, especially that Spirit of the SuperCouncil (Vat II) connection with the Spirit of the SuperPope. Some of us remember that John XXIII claimed that he was “inspired” to hold a council.

There are many people of bad will in the New Church, of course. For these Liberals, the mere ipse dixit of the SuperCouncil and the Superpope will suffice to gain their allegiance, simply because Liberals want the same Liberal teaching as the SuperCouncil and the Superpope give, and Liberals by nature aren’t interested in reality or the reasons of things. For rational people, however, in the end it will be necessary to actually give answers to this argument from The Popes of the Past:
“You Modern popes say we were wrong many times, sometimes even when we spoke dogmatically, or when we merely repeated the teaching of the Tradition that goes back to Christ Himself. We on the other hand say that you are wrong when you contradict us on those points. We cannot both be right. If we were wrong, then popes are not infallible, under any circumstances. If popes are never infallible, then neither are you. Therefore you could be wrong in saying we are not infallible, and your supposed “Holy Spirit” is not to be trusted. Moreover, if you are right that we and the Tradition can be wrong even about matters solemnly defined by us, then, since all acknowledge that we have spoken for the Church, the Church itself has been wrong. If the Church has been wrong about such defined and key matters, then the Church is not guided by the Holy Spirit, and is thus not the true Church. Therefore you Moderns are popes of a mistaken Church, and are not guided by the Holy Spirit. Therefore you Moderns are not to be followed any more than we.
There is simply no way out of this dilemma. The Modern popes make the past popes an unreliable authority. By doing so they make themselves an unreliable authority, and we don’t have to listen to them.
This is the dilemma that Francis knows will be posed to him if he dares to answer the Dubia, or allows the Four an audience. And that is why he refuses to do either.